Welcome back to our monthly link up…
Once again I wonder where the last month has gone. Time is passing and I think that each month it will be the status quo.
Our last months topic was on CONTENTMENT and I am thankful for those of you who stopped by and linked up or left me a comment. I am still working on CONTENTMENT, but I think like most things in my life, it is a work in progress.
This months topic is…
TAKING OUR THOUGHTS CAPTIVE
and just as I was contemplating this topic for the month, I was challenged on it.
Isn’t that just the way… We had an issue with an extended family member that left us very disappointed and here I am needing now to put this topic into practice.
Why do I need to put it into practice??? If I don’t I will allow this problem to build up in me and I will find myself thinking on what has happened and I will be having conversations in my mind about what I would have liked to say.
Now don’t get me wrong, we should try and reconcile the issue as well and we have taken steps to do this but that doesn’t stop my mind ticking over. It’s that spaghetti brain I guess and the way I am wired.
I first picked this topic after discussion with a dear friend of mine and some scripture that she shared with me.
Philippians 4:8-9 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.
There you go whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure… etc etc MEDITATE ON THESE THINGS.
Now at the moment I am struggling to mediate on anything other than the situation that we’ve been challenged with and truly, it isn’t honouring God to be thinking the way I am.
I need to take hold of my thoughts – take them captive and bring them into the obedience of Christ.
2 Corinthians 10:5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
I need to focus on what is good and lovely and pure and I find, especially when I start having conversation with people in my head that God convicts me and I stop and I pray for those people. I ask God to bless them and prosper them and give them good health.
But… I fail so often and fall into my old ways, mainly I think because they are so comfortable. No one wants to bless someone who has hurt them, it’s not always an easy thing to do, but it is important to give our whole lives and all our thoughts to God.
God is our “go to” in all situations and unless we are actively taking our thoughts captive, God stops being our “go to” and becomes our “sometimes” or “whenever it suits” and we become our own “go to”.
How do you handle TAKING YOUR THOUGHTS CAPTIVE???
How do you focus on Christ instead of the problems and issues in your life???
I would love to hear from you this month on this topic and if you don’t have a post to link up please leave me your thoughts in the comment section, I need all the help I can get.
Also please forgive me if I delete your post if it doesn’t relate to our topic for the month. Please feel free to pop over to our Good Morning Mondays Link Up each week if you have something else you would like to share.
Have a great month and I look forward to hearing from you.
Blessings to you all xxxxx
How amazing. I too have had a recent situation where I had been having conversations in my head with the person involved. I have also used your method of praying for this person but sometimes the thoughts are still there. I decided to make the choice to step away from the thoughts and refuse to entertain them when they tried to get my attention-sometimes easier said than done. I then decided to refer the situation to God to address if He felt it needed it. This helped but an interesting thing happened. I began to feel concern for this person IF God did decide to address it. As they are not a Christian I began to pray for them that God would bless them rather than doing anything else. This seemed to help such that the thoughts appeared less and less.
I pray that God will provide you with His wisdom as to how He would help you reduce the appearance of the ‘thoughts’ that life would be more comfortable without!
Bless you
Thank you so much Kerrie for your thoughts on this topic. I like how you went about dealing with the problem by asking God to address the situation if needed and then praying for the person involved. I’m so glad that your heart changed and that the thoughts appeared less and less. I think that when something happens the thoughts are there all the time and it’s a constant turning them over to God. Thank you also for your prayers, they are much appreciated. Blessings to you and thank you for sharing.
What an excellent theme! I’m sharing a post from some time ago when I was reading a book by John Owen. Those Puritans had so much wisdom about dealing with sin. Thanks be to God for the working of the Spirit in the heart of the believer.
Thank you so much Michele for linking up and for sharing with us. Blessings to you this week.